The 2007 UNO-United Way Campaign begins Monday, Oct. 1. For the first time, UNO will conduct the campaign electronically.

"During the month of October, UNO faculty and staff can pledge online through an efficient, secure system that mirrors the traditional card pledging system of years past," said Rod Oberle, director of Human Resources. "Online pledging is an exciting change for our campaign and gives faculty and staff the opportunity to quickly and easily donate to the cause."

Instead of receiving a card, employees will receive a user name and password in an e-mail sent to their UNO e-mail address. A handful of employees who do not have an e-mail account can still use the pledge card system. A "no-pledge" option will remain available online for employees choosing not to donate this year.

Demonstrations of the online pledging system will be conducted in the Milo Bail Student Center Omaha Room at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, and again at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27. All faculty and staff are invited to attend one of the 20-minute demonstrations. Employees unable to attend a demonstration, but who need help in using the system, should visit the Human Resources Office, 205 Eppley Administration Building.

SPO to Host "The Maverick Masquerade" Homecoming

Homecoming Week at UNO officially begins this Saturday, Sept. 22, with a special preview concert. The Student Programming Organization (SPO) will host the concert and a variety of events in conjunction with Homecoming Week, Sept. 22-29. The theme is "The Maverick Masquerade." The schedule is as follows:

The Indian Student Association at UNO will host a presentation on Vedic Math Saturday, Sept. 22, at 5 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Milo Bail Student Center (MBSC) Chancellor's Room.

Sree N. Sreenath of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland is the guest speaker. Dr. Sreenath earned a bachelor's degree from Bangalore University, a master's from the Indian Institute of Science and a doctorate degree from the University of Maryland.

Vedic Math is an ancient form of mathematics where difficult problems or huge sums can be solved, often by easy methods with an emphasis on mental calculations.

For more information on Saturday's presentation, call 201.7549.

UNO Job Fair to Offer Two-day Fall Event

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 25 and 26, Career Exploration and Outreach will host a job fair featuring more than 110 employers who are actively seeking candidates for open positions and internships. The event, both days, runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Milo Bail Student Center (MBSC) Ballroom.

Sept. 25 is primarily dedicated to organizations that are non-profit, government, healthcare and university related. Sept. 26 will feature for-profit organizations. Professional interview attire is expected and students should bring copies of their résumé. For more information about the job fair and other services, contact Career Exploration and Outreach at 554.3672 or stop by 211 Eppley Administration Building.

Campus Security encourages the UNO community to heed the following advice on dealing with potential magazine solicitation scams.

The typical magazine solicitors are in their late teens or early twenties, both male and female, and blend in on college campuses. Some claim to be working on class projects for the UNO School of Communication, UNO Television or KVNO. Others claim to be working toward a scholarship and some, accurately, represent themselves as magazine solicitors.

The Omaha City Code requires a solicitor to obtain a permit to solicit within the city limits, as well as permission to solicit on university property. Magazine solicitors rarely, if ever, have the necessary permit and, as of yet, have never been given permission to solicit on UNO property, said Paul Kosel, assistant manager of UNO security and traffic.

"In most cases, magazine subscription solicitors work as independent contractors or for contractors, but not for the company for whom they solicit," Kosel said. "The potential customer may or may not actually receive a magazine subscription and runs the risk of being scammed."

In some cases, although not yet at UNO, the solicitor uses the sales pitch as a pretense for criminal actions, Kosel said. At UNO, the solicitors can most frequently be found near the Milo Bail Student Center, Criss Library and student housing.

"I'd strongly encourage everyone at UNO not to speak with these solicitors and to contact Campus Security with a location and description of the individual," Kosel said.

- Thomas Gouttierre, dean of international studies and programs and director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies, was interviewed Sept. 18 by Correio Braziliense (Brasilia, Brazil) about the relationship between the narcobusinees in Afghanistan and the re-emergence of the Taliban.

- The Omaha World-Herald spoke with Paul Kosel, assistant manager of Campus Security, on Sept. 20 about armed officers on college campuses. Kosel was also interviewed Sept. 18 by WOWT (NBC 6) about the same topic.

- Gregory Petrow, assistant professor of political science, appeared on KETV (ABC 7) Sept. 19 to speak about U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns' political plans.

- Jenn Piatt, director of the Women's Resource Center, was interviewed by KFAB (1110 AM) Sept. 20 about a free car care workshop held at UNO.

- Mary Lynn Reiser, associate director of the Center for Economic Education, was interviewed by the Omaha World-Herald Sept. 17 about credit card use among college students.

- Bill Swanson, assistant to the vice chancellor in the Office of Career Exploration and Outreach, was quoted in an Aug. 31 Omaha World-Herald article about technology skills among college graduates.

If you are a member of the UNO community and have been interviewed by the media - local, state, regional, national or international - we want to know about it. Send an e-mail with the particulars to enotes@mail.unomaha.edu. Please include a contact name and phone number. For more information, call 554.2243.

In Print

- Dale Krane, Kayser Professor in the UNO School of Public Administration, recently published "The Middle Tier in American Federalism: State Government Policy Activism During the Bush Presidency," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, vol. 37, 3 (Summer 2007): 453-477. To view the article, click on this link.

If you've authored or edited a book, article or other text that's been published recently, we want to know about it. Send an e-mail with the particulars to enotes@mail.unomaha.edu. Please include a contact name and phone number. For more information, call 554.2243.

On Stage

Heartland Philharmonic Orchestra to Play Mexican Orchestral Gems Sept. 28
Bienvenidos! The UNO Heartland Philharmonic will perform a program of Mexican symphonic music on Friday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Strauss Performing Arts Center (PAC) Recital Hall. Tickets are available at the door for $5 for adults, $4 for students and senior citizens and free with a UNO MavCard.

"Omaha Sister Cities Association, River City Roundup and the UNO Department of Music invite everyone to a concert featuring rarely heard orchestral gems from Mexico," said Kimberly Ahrenholtz-Mettenbrink, Strauss PAC coordinator. "This performance is one of the official events of the 2007 River City Roundup and will carry out some of the themes of this annual celebration."

In attendance will be a delegation of officials from Xalapa - one of Omaha's five sister cities. The orchestra will be guest conducted by one of Xalapa's foremost musical celebrities, Maestro Antonio Tornero, director of the Instituto Superior de Musica de Estado de Veracruz. Maestro Tornero is highly regarded as a conductor, violinist and music educator throughout Mexico.

Music during the concert includes many works that incorporate popular folkloric Mexican elements. Composers featured on the program are Marquez, Moncayo, Olivia, Beristain and Copland. The national anthems of Mexico and the United States will also be performed.

For tickets or more information, call 554.3427.

UNO Theatre Season Tickets Available
Season tickets are on sale for the UNO Department of Theatre's 2007-2008 season, which opens with Yasmina Rezia's "Art" on Thursday, Oct. 11.

"Art" performances will run Oct. 11-13 and 17-20. The season also includes Jean Giraudoux's "The Madwoman of Chaillot," Nov. 15-17, 28-30 and Dec. 1; "NU Ways/NU Works Festival," Feb. 28, March 1 and 5-8; and "The Birds," a world premier musical by D. Scott Glasser and Jeffrey Bell based on the play by Aritophanes, April 17-19 and 23-26.

The UNO Department of Theatre is home to a faculty with more than 150 years of combined professional theatre experience. In addition, alumni from both the undergraduate and graduate programs at UNO are working professionally in theatres across the country. The department provides professional-quality theatre at discounted season ticket prices.

If you are a member of the UNO community and are involved in an upcoming performance, we want to know about it. Send an e-mail with the particulars to enotes@mail.unomaha.edu. Please include a contact name and phone number.

On Exhibit

WWII Posters on Display Beginning Sept. 24
The Criss Library will display vintage posters from the World War II era Sept. 24 through Nov. 18.

The exhibit, "Homeland Morale to Homeland Security: Original WWII Posters," features posters issued by the Office of War Information during the war. The posters were displayed in post offices, railroad stations and other public places to bolster morale and encourage public support.

"Several of the posters remain instantly recognizable, such as Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms," said James T. Shaw, government documents librarian at Criss Library. "Others feature images which have largely been forgotten, but they reflect concerns that viewers will recognize as resonating today as our military engages in conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The exhibit is free to the public and available for viewing during regular library hours. The posters are drawn from the U.S. Documents collection of Criss Library.

"Homeland Morale to Homeland Security" compliments another World War II exhibit at the library next month. On Friday, Oct. 5, a mobile museum will be parked near the library from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Behind Barbed Wire: Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany" will tour the Midwest this fall.

The traveling exhibition is displayed inside a renovated school bus. Photographs and other war-related memorabilia explore the experiences of Midwest prisoners of war. Visit http://www.traces.org/buseum.html for additional details about the "Behind Barbed Wire" exhibit.

For more information, call 554.2762.

"Conversations about Prints" Set for Sept. 30 at UNO
The UNO Print Workshop and the Friends of Art will host a master prints sale and exhibition Sunday, Sept. 30. "Conversations about Prints" will feature prints from the Thomas French Fine Art and Paul McCarron Fine Prints and Drawings galleries from 1 to 6 p.m. in the UNO Art Gallery, located in the Weber Fine Arts Building.

Thomas French of Thomas French Fine Art (Fairlawn, Ohio) and Beth McKeown of Paul McCarron Fine Prints and Drawings (New York) will exhibit a selection of master prints in a variety of mediums for viewing and sale. Both dealers are members of the International Fine Print Dealers Association.

Robert H. Getscher - noted art historian, author and fine print connoisseur - will also be on hand at the event to provide education and consultation.

For more information, contact the UNO Department of Art and Art History at 554.2420.

UNO Art Gallery Hosting Three Exhibitions
The UNO Art Gallery currently has three exhibitions on display - "Travis Conrad Erion: Symbols of the Soul," "Giedre Montvila: Take a Look" and "Ann Weiner: To Bear Witness."

Katharine T. Carter & Associates organized all three exhibitions, which will remain on view through Saturday, Oct. 13. The details of each exhibit follow.

"Travis Conrad Erion: Symbols of the Soul" - Erion's still life paintings represent common everyday items. While beautifully rendered in a realistic manner, the arrangement of objects possesses a narrative full of humor, wit and social commentary. The titles, like the still lifes, describe what is observed, but much is left unsaid.

"Giedre Montvila: Take a Look" - Montvila paints how people live, love and desire as influenced by the media, while at the same time her work critiques the ubiquitous culture of the media and advertisers who use beauty to manipulate. Working from images culled from glossy fashion magazines, Montvila creates impeccably rendered drawings in colored pencil, which are then incorporated into painted collages.

"Ann Weiner: To Bear Witness" - Weiner's work utilizes lenticular technology - a sophisticated imaging technique that merges different images - to create enigmatic pictures that "morph" into other images. Emphasizing the moment, she focuses on simultaneous layers of reality, the concrete and the intangible. The most striking aspect of Weiner's lenticular images is the way in which they change, depending on where and how the viewer is standing.

The UNO Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Weber Fine Arts Building. The exhibitions are free, handicapped accessible and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m.; Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.; and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

For more information, call 554.2796.

Nebraska City Gallery Featuring UNO Professor's Exhibition
The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Neb., currently is displaying UNO Professor David Helm's "Yankee Doodle" exhibition through Thursday, Oct. 25. It is free and open to the public.

Helm, chair of the UNO Department of Art and Art History, explores archaic and absurd circumstances in this exhibit, according to the center's press release. His work is designed to reference a time other than now - his contraptions and diagrams investigate introspective, and nostalgic, approaches to flight, alchemy, energy and experimentation. Since the 1980s, Helm has exhibited large-scale installations at museums and galleries in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and Omaha.

The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center Gallery is located at 801 3rd Corso in Nebraska City, and is open Monday through Thursday and the first and third Saturdays of each month from noon to 4 p.m. Appointments at other times are available.

If you are a member of the UNO community and are involved in an exhibit, we want to know about it! Send an e-mail with the particulars to enotes@mail.unomaha.edu. Please include a contact name and phone number. For more information, call 554.2243.